Soft Serve Machine

Back in 1986 SMCM had a soft serve machine for ice cream stuff.  I have heard of this before but now I see a photo of it.

What BULLSHIT.  Why don't we get a soft serve machine.  We are clearly degrading as an institution if we no longer have soft serve machine.  It looks so delicious, I wish I was eating it right now because it is kinda hot out (via humidity).  I also went for a bike ride and raced some twelve year olds from the pool so I am kinda sweaty (I won btw).

I'm not actually upset regarding this I just thought it would be funny to freak out about it.  Also this girl has cool hair.

SMCM Marauder's Map

Someone, I believe Jamie Phillips, made a Marauder's Map (via Harry Potter) for SMCM.  So far the only thing that I've found on the map itself is clicking on Monty to find out how to get on the roof easily.  Oh and I just found something to click on around the Campus Center which leads into the top of the tower...interesting.  Oh and there is something to click on around Anne Arundel.

So check it out, leave a comment if you find any more secrets on the map.

I'm dumb and forgot to link to it.  http://students.smcm.edu/jephillips/Maphome.html

University of Stirling

Look at this ad that popped up on the blog, COMPETING SCHOOLZ

Hat

A few weeks ago while I was walking past the Campus Center I saw Dr. Urgo and he told me that someone had mentioned to him that I should put my hat (which I wore a lot this past year) in the Archives via it's culturally significant.  I thought this was a very silly idea but it made me chortle.  Urgo and I both greatly enjoy hats, though I believe his are of a higher 'quality' even though they lack the ironic factor.  The hat in question is below:

As you can see it is blue and has mesh in the back.  It is a hat from the Cape May-Lewes Ferry (it took me like 20 seconds to remember how to spell ferry correctly in the context of a boat...).  I liked this ferry a lot when I was a child (via it had an arcade onboard) so I was delighted when I found it in a thrifting shop.

Anyway this was just a short anecdote to share with yall.  How do yall feel about 'hats' and 'wearing them' (via headgear?).

Shoeless Campus

Someone showed me this like a month ago and I forgot about it, I don't think it was SMCM students though.

Anyway how do yall feel about not wearing shoes on campus.  I don't really like shoes tbh.  I also don't really understand why you have to wear shoes in dining facilities.  Like I get that it's a health code violation, but I don't really understand the rationale.  Anyways, shoes!

Free T-Shirts

Hey yalls I have two T-Shirts that I want to get rid of (via I have too many T-Shirts and adults don't wear T-Shirts so I need to get rid of them).  They are both SMCMesque.

First is a circa 2010 Relay for Life size M shirt wooo

If you look closely you can see Lego in the corner!

Second is a Seahawks Empowered to Act shirt circa 2009ish size L.

Perfect for anyone who hates rape or sexual assault etc.

How to get a shirt:

• See me sometime in 2011
• Via comments or email tell me why you should get a shirt
• Photoshops/photos are the best way to win

Bike Shops should get this

This is an awesome thing and would be radical to have outside the bike shop/campus center.  A quick bike repair station, with tools for nuts and bolts and most importantly a pump!  Also I wouldn't feel awkward going to the bike shop just for air in my tires.

Class of 1996 Beer Salute

Why didn't we do this!

2009 Graduation Speaker

Julia Brady showed me this today, a transcript of Frank Warren's (of PostSecret fame) graduation speech to SMCM.  I was around for graduation that day but I completely forgot about this, it's well worth the read I believe.


Twenty years ago, I was sitting among a sea of white folding chairs, just like you are today. I was graduating with my friends from UC Berkeley. I can’t recall who the commencement speaker was that day, or what he or she said. So, in some ways — even though this is the first commencement address I have delivered — I feel very little pressure. But in other ways I feel unprepared and undeserving of this great honor you have given me.

Five years ago I started collecting secrets for an art project I call PostSecret. I invited strangers to write their secrets on postcards and mail them to me, anonymously. Today, I still get about 1,000 every week from all over the world and share them with people on the web and in five PostSecret books. 

These secrets can tell a funny story, expose a sexual taboo, describe someone’s most humiliating experience or reveal hidden acts of kindness. Each secret is unique just like a fingerprint. But collectively they remind us how connected we all are with friends, and strangers, and how precious those relationships can be.

From the nearly half-million postcards that have been mailed to me, I brought one example to read to you. This is a postcard that I carry with me every time I travel to talk about PostSecret. Like so many of the secrets, if you truly open yourself up to them at the core there is a kernel of experience or wisdom that we can learn from. This secret reminds me to always treat the people I meet during my frequent travels with the kindness and respect that we all deserve. And once I read you this secret I think you will understand why.

My home address is on the back of the card along with a stamp and a cancelation mark, this postcard was mailed from Seattle Washington. On the front are six RUSH stickers from an airport baggage handler. The secret reads: You called me an idiot so I sent your bags to the wrong destination. WHOOPS, I guess you were right.

In the same spirit as PostSecret, a month ago, I asked each member of your 2009 Class to write down a brief message on a postcard. I didn’t ask for a secret. I asked instead for a response to the following question: What do my classmates, and I, need to hear on Graduation Day?

I did not know what to expect by tapping into your collective wisdom, but I was soon thrilled by the insight, humor, and inspiration I felt in your earnest one-sentence commencement speeches. Here are just a few.

Be wise enough not to be reckless, but brave enough to take great risks.

It’s okay to fail – learn from it and you will succeed.

It’s better to be pissed-off than pissed-on.

These next three all offer solid advice about making the transition from St Mary’s to the real world.

With the increased prevalence of multi-drug resistant bacteria and the increasingly epidemic worldwide outbreak of swine flu, WASH YOUR HANDS … RELIGIOUSLY.

In the real world, you must wear shoes.

I know some of us are going to walk off this stage today with no idea about what comes next – embrace it, find something that makes you happy, and follow it wherever it leads.

These last two thoughts mention a part of the St. Mary’s experience that several students wrote about — The St. Mary’s River. 

Perfection is something that everyone strives for, yet no one achieves; let the memory of the perfect sunrise over The St. Mary’s River drive your inspirations when you doubt your abilities in the future.

Regardless of where the future takes us, we will still all have one commonality; the river and our time together here.

This final inspirational thought came with a little back-story that I would like to include.

So, I thought of this as I was getting breakfast at 8:30 this morning, after pulling an all-nighter. Yes, an all-nighter on the last night before the last day of classes ever in my undergraduate career. And then, parenthetically, I am still not done with my work, by the way; but I wanted to stop and write this … 

… I might be over the all-nighters in Baltimore Hall, the shower shoes, the no-soap-or-paper-towels-in-the-dispenser, and even the annoying Great Room hours of St. Mary’s College of Maryland; but I will never – EVER be over how each of those circumstances, at this fine institution, allowed me to meet the most fascinating and awesome people I have ever met in my life; I am humbled to call them friends! 

I really hope that person was able to finish up and be here. Are you out there? If you are please stand so we can recognize you. [Enthusiastic Applause] 

About 100 days ago I visited your special campus for the first time. I had a chance to appreciate the surroundings, the woods, The St. Mary’s River. And I got to know students, professors and staff. During that visit, I asked students if they had a favorite secret they had seen on the PostSecret website. One young woman recalled a secret that she had seen last year. It read: My friend believes they will change the world, and I believe them. She pointed out the classmate she was thinking of. I have forgotten the student’s name, but I believe they are here, right now, sitting in a white chair.

My talk is almost over but before I close, I want to confess one of my secrets. It’s not a happy secret and I have never said it out loud before… I have lost contact with all of my college friends from Berkeley. 

In all the excitement of this special day, I hope you will not overlook the lasting value of the people you have shared this meaningful journey with. The friends, who decades from now will remember your face and character just as clearly as The St. Mary’s River.

Don’t wait another minute to ask your classmate, professor or campus staff member for that email address, telephone number, or if you are old school like me — mailing address.

Twenty years from today, you probably won’t remember who your commencement speaker was or what he or she said. But I pray that each of you will never lose the important relationships formed in this extraordinary place with the old friends and new, who believe in you, and surround you, now — in white folding chairs.

Convocation

Ahhh what a great event!  Highlights (or is it spelled hilights?):

• Shoutout from Urgo via my blog.  When he started talking about cool kids on campus I felt it was possible that he would mention me and then he did via I am a psychic.  It was a cute shoutout!
• Good speeches from all!
• I fucking bawled like a baby while sipping on my Arnold Palmer when the professors started singing Look on the Bright Side of Life.
• Senior slideshow!  Lots of photos from the exec board which elicited a lot of comments like 'lol brooke wilson slide show' but you really can't complain if you didn't send in any pictures...anyway it was really good.
• Also thank you to whomever decided to include a photo of me at the door with a pitcher.  Typical thursday hahah.
• I was really impressed with it overall and will miss these wonderful people (for the month and a half before I return via MAT program.

Also on a personal note I moved into my new townhouse today!  Come visit me sometime maybe, it's near that gas station/liquor store/car wash on 235.

Just handed in my last paper!

Have completed college, woo.  Thanks to all of you that read and commented over the years to help me procrastinate, hopefully this trend will continue into the next year.

Stay off the Poritcos

Please stay off the Porticos.  But what does that really mean?  Can anyone really stay off of anything?  Aren't we all going through life, just trying to stay on and not fall off into nothingness?  What is a portico, is it a metaphor for life itself?  What would Foucault or Faulkner say about the notion of the portico?  Can anything in life really be weight bearing, or are all of our troubles simply too heavy for this world to support?

For reals though I would loller if someone's portico actually broke, since people are on them a lot and no one dies from it.  But people probs should stay off of them.  Speaking of breaking, when we were at Cerro Grande last night we were talking about how the one townhouse last year flooded, and how we have the same attic thing and that maybe we should go into it and do the same thing, but then we realized this is a dumb idea.

Ham

I was walking into midnight breakfast after an adventure to Cerro Grande with roommates and a dozen others (during which Catherine Karuna and I sang 'Proud to be an American' which was really fun and the guys there put Sombreros on our heads as we sang which we appreciated greatly) when Dr. Urgo said hello and that we missed out on him cutting us ham!  But I got Dean Bayless to cut me some, which was a small slice but I wasn't that hungry so I was very satisfied and actually happy to get a small slice (she offered to cut another but like I said I was satisfied).

Anyway midnight breakfast was great.  Not as great when I was the head of the food committee, but still great (jk it was really good tonight).

Transparency

This is the new door for the President's office (via stolen from his facebook).  The old doors were very large and menacing, and I was always scared to go in, so I only went in like once.

Lame Pun:  Urgo is really trying to improve the transparency of the college (LOLOL via double meanings of transparency)

Also, his name is etched into the glass so I imagine that the next President will have to have the same name or he will get to take the door with him (a literal 'door prize' ahahahhh the puns, they never end).

I think it looks real nice though overall.

Next Year

I don't think a lot of people realize this but I'll actually still be here next year via MAT program.  So...bloggerin will continue I guess

May Day!

May Day was really fun this year!  We all met up in the Garden of Remembrance and put on lots of body paint and rode around campus.  Jumping into the river afterwards was incredibly cold!

Hmm not much to say really I guess, it was cool riding past everyone in the Campus Center and we only saw a half dozen townies.